Packers' Capers: 'You don't want to coach passiveness'

Green Bay -- The question was whether or not the Detroit Lions were a dirty team. They're the team with Ndamukong Suh, the ultimate lightning rod of criticism. And Dom Capers took it in a different direction.

As we wrote today, the Packers players are baffled over the weekly flags and fines they've received this season.

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You don't want to coach passiveness. You think? It is football, for crying out loud.

Similarly, the recent !@#$ about kickoffs is disturbing.

How about for the start of the game, do what the XFL did: Place the ball at the 50. Put a player for each team at their own 35 or so. At the whistle, the team with the ball gets it where it was recovered. Following scores, leave the game as it is. Enough already. Defensive players can't hit high. They can't hit low. When they form tackle at high speed, they get flagged for unnecessary roughness because of the violent rib crunging collision. Just go to flag football and get it over with . . . . . . .

RGIII got pulled down from behind last week by a defender pulling on the back of his jersey. His legs buckled in a way that risked knee injury EXACTLY as if it had been a "horse collar" takedown. Is that not going to be illegal as well? The horse collar tackle should never have been created as a penalty (terminology courtesy of John Madden). A neck injury is serious and is why grabbing the facemask is a penalty. Knee injuries of tackled players is part of the risk of the game. While on the subject of face masks, why in the world can't they be required to be closer to the face so they are not so easily grabbed by mistake? That would be an honest attempt at minimizing serious injury and not a knee jerk reaction to a star player getting hurt from an inherent risk of the game.

jetpack, there have been several cases off fingers and thumbs in the eye when facemasks were grabbed. I think moving them closer to the face would only increase eye injuries. The face bubble, which today takes NFL approval, should maybe be a feature of all facemasks.

Have you ever played football? Your helmet is not bolted to your head it moves. If it is close to your face it would constantly smack the wearer in the face. I saw the RGIII tackle, grabbing a jersey is not a horse collar tackle.

Its been mostly ticky tack calls against the Pack all season...phantom holding calls the past 3 weeks, phantom PF calls for 5 weeks before that and phantom Pass Interference calls the first 3 or 4 games...both sets of Refs have been a joke all season, no continuity or baseline consistency at all and it just seems to be a crap shoot whether you get a decent crew and whether they are going to call the game the same way for both teams, for 4 quarters...

I think the NFLPA did it's players a disservice by establishing flat rates for certain violations. Fines should be proportionate to pay. Guys like Moses getting marginal calls and then losing what amounts to a paycheck creates confusion when you have DC's demanding phsyicality.

There is no mechanism for the NFLPA to revisit this issue until the year 2020 or whenever the CBA expires - it wont happen. Much more likely will be discussions out of the competition committee and the rules committee which are made up of in part owners, GM's and coaches. Don't believe fines will come up, they are a fact of NFL life. But I would predict a general discussion of what is a penalty and what isn't. Plus I can see a discussion about outlawing cut blocking as well. You do feel bad for the rookies - all of whom are fighting like dogs to stay. But imagine a vet getting a 1 game suspension - thats hundreds of thousands of dollars!. Used to hear smack out of James Harrison all the time - not any more since he was suspended a couple of times.

It will take a while for players to un-learn blasting opposing players rather than tackling or blocking them. The NFL has to make the game safer. Once players start to tackle instead of blasting, things will be fine. It will take time.